There were kinks. A building of that size, tunnels beneath, the security, unknown number of adversaries inside. More, the unknown number of minor civilians.
Then there was timing, coordinating with the authorities in France, Devereaux on Long Island, the whereabouts of scouts.
As they worked it, the fatigue crept back.
“Anyone in this room who wants in on the op takes a departmentally approved booster. Including me. Most of us have been up and at this for twenty-four or better.”
“Hate that shit,” Feeney muttered.
“Get in line. I’d say everybody take an hour down, but we don’t have it, so the boost. Take ten if you want it. Take a walk, get some air, whatever works. Peabody, sign out six boosters, log everyone’s name.”
As she spoke, Willowby came in.
“You’re early.”
“So I get the worm. I got more on the auction, wanted to pass it on in person since you called me in anyway.”
“Did you get any sleep?”
“Caught a couple hours. Things are moving.”
“Seven boosters, Peabody. We’ll brief in about ten, you can address new data then.”
Willowby scanned the screen, the board. “Looks like you’ve got plenty of new.”
“We have the location. We’re hitting it this morning.”
“No shit?” Slapping her hands together, Willowby focused on the screen. “That’s the where? Is that the … that’s the RDS drop-off I use. Fuck me, I’ve been in that place dozens of times. Now I’m pissed. Can I get in on this?”
“It’s why you’re here.”
“Well, hot damn. I’ve got to kick somebody’s ass now that I know I stood at that damn counter and there were girls … Son of a bitch.”
“We’ll get them out. Give me ten, Willowby.”
“Yeah, sure. I gotta walk off the mad.”
When Willowby left and they were alone, Eve turned to Roarke.
“You can’t worry about me. I’m talking about my mental and emotional state. I’m handling it, and I’m going to keep handling it.”
“Until?”
“Until it’s done. I’m going to say, here, to you, that even though I know it shouldn’t, my mental and emotional state need to get this done. And I’m going to say we wouldn’t be here, where I know we can get it done, without you. I couldn’t have gotten here without you. I don’t only mean the e-work. I mean knowing you’d be there if I got shaky. So I’m telling you I won’t get shaky. We, every one of us, have to be on top of this, every step of it, every contingency, every unknown—and there are too many of them. We have to, or it won’t get done.”
He took his hands out of his pockets, where his fingers had toyed with her old gray button, and put them on her shoulders.
“You’re steady as they come. If I had worries about that, you put them to rest an hour ago. Still, you’re so bloody tired.”
“Hence the booster. What the hell kind of word is hence?”
He just gathered her in, rested his cheek on top of her head. “Promise me something. If, after it’s done, you need to feel shaky, you’ll let yourself.”
“After it’s done. And you’re good with your parts in this?”
“I am. I’m with you, Lieutenant, before, during, and after.”
“I’m going to say I love you, then we need to break this up.”
“I’m going to say I love you.” He tipped her face up to his, kissed her. “And now we can break this up. Temporarily.”
“Let’s plan—when it’s done—on getting a bunch of sleep, then having a bunch of wine, then having a bunch of sex.”
“Sex, sleep, wine, more sex.”
“I can agree to that. Break,” she said, and stepped back, stared at the screen. “It’s going to work.”
“I believe that. I had a change of clothes brought in for you. They’re in your locker. You’ll feel better if you take ten minutes for yourself.”
“Probably would. Shower, change, boost. Okay, thanks. Looks like you grabbed the first two of those already.”
“I did, so I can attest you’ll feel better for doing the same.”
“I’ll be back in ten.”
She made a beeline for the locker room, and decided if the stingy piss-trickle of almost hot water in the shower felt like luxury, she’d needed it.
And the fact that Roarke had provided, in his Roarke way, a black shirt and trousers, fresh boots, a thin black jacket with magic lining told her he understood she wanted the take-no-bullshit state of mind.
In under ten she headed back to the conference room.
She caught the scent from ten feet away.
Bacon, coffee, sugar.
And from the sound of voices, cops who’d beat her back had dived right in.
Once again the Roarke way, she thought when she stepped in. Thermal dishes and platters huddled on the conference table. One look at the mountain of fluffy scrambled eggs told her he hadn’t ordered the fake stuff from Central’s Eatery.
Bacon, sausage, bagels, and damn it, she recognized the sticky buns from Jacko’s.
She watched the e-team along with Peabody, Willowby, Baxter, and Trueheart piling plates with all of it. Before she could speak, Jenkinson and Reineke barreled in behind her.
“Now this is what I call a briefing!” So saying, Jenkinson zeroed in on the sticky buns.
It was hard to blame him.
With a smile, Roarke brought her one of her own.
“I’m going to have a rescue/takedown team loaded with food.”
“Fueled,” he corrected. “Make sure you eat some eggs.”
Since it was right there, she bit into the sticky bun.
They streamed in. She gestured Lowenbaum and the two cops with him to the table. Found that nicety unnecessary with Santiago, Carmichael, and the uniforms.
Then Mira came in with Jamie Lingstrom—Feeney’s godson, summer intern, college kid. Eve just pointed at him.
“Cap asked me to come in and run the screen for the briefing,” he began.
“And I added to that.” Mira gave Jamie’s arm a pat. “He’s closer in age to the victims you’ll get out, and may be able to help reassure and keep them calm.”
“You can work in here, in the van, and with Dr. Mira. You’re not on the takedown. Not this time,” she said when he started to object. “But you’ll free up McNab, and that’s going to help. Take it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Eat. I’m waiting for the commander, then we roll.”
It’s not a damn party, she thought as Jamie spotted the sticky buns and let out a “Woo!”
“These girls will feel disoriented, afraid, displaced.” Now Mira laid a hand on Eve’s arm. “We can’t know how deep the indoctrination goes for some of them, how deep the trauma. Having Jamie, and Willowby for that matter, as she looks younger than she is, may help. It doesn’t end at getting them out.”
“I know it.”
“You do. All of you have done good work here, and when you finish that work, mine really begins. I’ve called in two other therapists, ones I trust, to help with that.”
“Okay. That’s your end. You should get something to eat before the scavengers lick the plates.”
“So should you.”
But as Eve waited by the door, itching to start, Peabody brought her a plate with a scoop of eggs, a couple slices of bacon. And the booster.
“It’s not really good to take one on an empty stomach.”
“Right.” She didn’t think she needed one, not when she felt revved again. But she’d given the order to include herself.
She funneled in a couple bites of eggs—definitely not from the Eatery—then popped the booster with the coffee Peabody handed her.
“They’re already getting the gist,” Peabody told her. “Feeney’s giving Jamie the basics so he can handle the screen. And Willowby made Trueheart blush. Twice.”
“Christ.”
“No, I think it’s a good thing. She’s going to be part of the op—an important part. It’s good to make connections. We hauled in more chairs. Not sure if it’s enough.”
“It’s fine. Not everybody’s going to want to sit.”
And finally she saw Whitney striding toward the conference room. With long, lean, lanky Chief Tibble beside him.
Training put her at attention.
“Chief. Commander.”
“Lieutenant.” Tibble scanned the room. “A breakfast buffet. Excellent idea,” he added as Eve braced to take the heat. “I’ve spent the last two hours in holo-briefings with the French, and the commander’s done the same on the domestic front regarding the scouting suspects. I could go for one of the cinnamon rolls and some coffee. What about you, Jack?”
“As long as my wife never hears about it. We’ll take a seat, Lieutenant. You can begin when you’re ready.”
She was beyond ready, but gave it another two minutes, waiting until the brass took seats before she walked to the center of the room.
“Stuff it in, stand or sit. Jamie, on-screen.”
Feet moved; chairs scraped.
Roarke stood in the back, as she’d figured he would. Lowenbaum stood beside him. A scatter of others did the same, coffee mugs in hand.
“I’m not going to spend a lot of time on background. Some of you have been in on this investigation since the beginning. The rest of you are cops, and if you don’t know how to keep your ears and eyes open, you shouldn’t be.
“We’ll start with Mina Cabot. Jamie, let’s go.”
She ran through the basics, and had to admit, with next to no prep, Jamie kept up with her.
She answered questions when they came, added details when warranted, and built the framework, as she saw it, of the child trafficking organization.
“We’ve identified minor females abducted from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Maryland, Virginia.” As she reeled them off, Jamie put their photos on-screen.
“Our investigation indicates they’re chosen and abducted by scouts paid through the Red Swan front. Detective Peabody has compiled a priority list of suspects. Detective.”
“Cecil Doggett,” Peabody said as she got to her feet.
“That fucking guy.”
Eve zeroed in on Officer Carmichael. In all the years she’d known him, she’d never seen hot rage in his eyes, or heard him speak in that tone.
“Sir,” he said immediately, “apologies.”
“You know that fucking guy?” Eve countered.
“I—we—had an incident once.”
“Elaborate.”
“Sir. He was a cop, in Baltimore.”
“Correct.”
“It was a long time ago. I was twelve. My parents took me and my little sister, my baby brother into Baltimore to visit my grandma. My mother’s mother. My mother, her mother, and my mother’s sister went out shopping, and to a baby shower for a friend. So my dad took us—the kids—out for ice cream that night, and on the way back, we get pulled over.”
“Traffic stop?”
“No, sir, though that man there used that as an excuse. He came up to my dad’s window, put his gun in his face, ordered him out of the car. My sister’s screaming, the baby’s crying, and I watched him drag my father out of the car, slam him against the hood so hard it busted his lip, had his nose bleeding.”
“Did Doggett have a partner or trainee with him?”
“No, sir. He said how the car was stolen. My dad’s telling us to stay still, stay in the car, he’s saying it’s his car, and he has the registration in the car, got his driver’s license in his wallet. He’s begging the cop not to hurt his kids. Doggett there, he leaned down low, and I don’t know what he said to my dad, but I saw the fear in Dad’s eyes. Fear for us.”
The room had gone so quiet, Eve could hear Carmichael breathing.
“People started gathering, calling out, recording it. He cuffed Dad, put him facedown on the ground, and leaned in the car. I thought he was going to shoot me, but he just stared while he got the registration out where Dad told him it was. Took his time with it, checked it against the driver’s license.”
Officer Carmichael cleared his throat. “I believe, always have, if people hadn’t been watching, recording, he’d have done a lot worse, but he took the cuffs off. He told my father how he got lucky, this time. Then he walked back to his car and drove off. My father’s face was bleeding where he got slammed against the hood. His hands shook. Some of those people came up, asked if he was okay, could they help. But he said he just needed to get his babies home. I know that face on-screen, and I know that name. I’ve never forgotten it.”
“Did your father report the incident?”
“I don’t know if he would have, but someone who recorded it posted it all online, and the next day cops came to my grandmother’s, talked to him, to me, too, and my sister. The baby was too young for that. I found out later, because I checked, he got suspended for it, and it wasn’t the first time he’d done something like that. So I know that face.”
“He should’ve been fired and brought up on charges. It’s a mark on every cop that he wasn’t, right then and there. Justice can move way too slow, and sometimes the system that drives it breaks down. Not this time, Officer. This time, we’re going to put Doggett exactly where he belongs.”
“Yes, sir. I trust we will.”
“Peabody, pick it up.”
“Angela Delinski.”
From the scouts, she moved to the suspected guards. Eve took over with Iris Beaty/Swan, then Jonah Devereaux.
“Those are the known suspects and their place on this wheel. We have several locations, and all will be covered, either by the NYPSD or the proper authorities. Our main target is the building where the abductees are held. Secondary are the residences of suspects in New York, the funeral home, and Devereaux’s Long Island estate. Main target’s blueprints, Jamie.
“The building has seven floors, including the basement area, and has access to tunnels. Lieutenant Lowenbaum, I leave it to you where to best position your men, but I need all exits covered, including exterior tunnel exits.”
“We’ll work that out,” he assured her.
“The e-team will give us the eyes and ears we need, cut communications, shut down the elevators, including the private one to the top floor and Beaty’s residence. We’ll have both air and water support.”
“I’m gonna cut in for a minute.” Feeney pushed to his feet. “We worked out a little something that’ll do better than the blueprints. Just a portable deal, but…”
He took out a remote, aimed it at the center of the room. A holo, a three-sixty of the blueprints, shimmered on. “I can turn it. It’ll be a little clunky.”
“Nice.” Eve circled it, stepped back into what would be the Hudson, nodded. “Yeah, nice. Okay, yeah, eyes front. Here’s how we take this target down, and priority is the safe recovery and rescue of all abductees.”
She went over every step, every move, adjusted when someone posited an alternative that seemed more solid. She had Feeney speak to the timing and responsibilities of the e-team. Then asked Whitney and Tibble to outline the plans for locations outside of New York.
Then she shifted to other New York locations, assigned teams.
“We’ll have transportation for the abductees, and Dr. Mira will supervise that. We have a conference room where they’ll wait. They must be interviewed, and Willowby and SVU will handle much of that, along with Dr. Mira and other therapists. Once identified, evaluated, and interviewed, those who have families or guardians can be released into their care. The others will process through Child Services.”
She scanned the room, confident she’d chosen the best, the brightest, and the most dedicated.
“Vests, all around. Takedown teams, battering ram. Tunnel team, night-vision, masks, canisters. Rescue teams, count heads after we’ve got that count, and get them all out and to their transport. Questions?”
Not anymore, she thought. Each and every one knew their job.
“Gear up. Transpo on garage level one, all teams, all locations. We move out in twenty.”
She walked over to Officer Carmichael. “After this is done, we clean it up, I’ll have Doggett transferred here. But it could take some time. If you want a couple days’ leave to go down to Baltimore, I’ll clear it.”
“Appreciate that, Lieutenant. I don’t need to see him. This is enough. Son of a bitch made me a cop.”
“No, you did. He might’ve turned you in that direction, because that’s who you are. Somebody else, and it’s hard to toss blame, might’ve said fuck them all. You’ve done credit to your uniform every day I’ve known you. That’s you, Officer.”
“Thank you. Thank you for that.”
After Carmichael left, Lowenbaum moved to her. “Just give me five minutes to go over our placement with you, all locations.”
She locked it in with him. Then turned to her commander and the chief. “Are you going to observe the operation of the primary target?”
“We’ll be here, coordinating the transfer of prisoners, victims,” Whitney told her. “And coordinating with the outside locations and their operations. You have the command, Lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir. Sir, Detective Yancy will be with Dorian Gregg this morning, working with her on sketches. I’d like him to bring her here when we have Beaty. I’d like her to confirm ID on her, and anyone else she recognizes.”
“Has Mira cleared this?”
“She has. She believes it will help the minor female, sir. And Reo believes it will only help nail down the legal case.”
“We’ll set her up in an Observation area when it’s time, with a child advocate.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Get the children out, Lieutenant,” Tibble told her. “And let’s nail the sons of bitches who profited from them to the wall.”
“That’s the plan.”
She headed out, crossed paths with Peabody, who handed her a vest and her earbud. “I’m so ready for this.”
Eve gave her a hard study as they walked to the elevators. “How much booster did you take?”
“Just the one. It’s all I needed. I want to crush them. I want them to squeal and beg for mercy when I do.”
“That’s not very Free-Ager of you.”
Peabody snorted. “I’ll light some candles and meditate to rebalance later. Crush now.”
“Do you actually do that? Light candles and stuff?”
“Bet your skinny ass. Sorry!” She sent Eve a wild-eyed, appalled look. “I’m revved up.”
“I’ll let it go—this time.”
“Revved,” she repeated. “Pissed. And cold. Ice-cold, so don’t worry about me not handling it. I do light candles and stuff. It balances out everything we see and do. That and hot jungle sex with McNab keep me level.”
When Eve’s eye twitched, Peabody grinned. “I figured it was a good time to get away with that one.”
“It’s never a good time. But since I need you at a hundred percent, I’ll put my boot up your ass later.”
“Always something to look forward to.”
And when Eve shoved off the elevator to avoid a crush of cops, Peabody trotted after her.
On the glide, she pulled out her ’link. “I’ve got to balance things,” she said, and tagged Nadine.
“Dallas,” Nadine began.
“Listen, don’t talk. Here’s what you can do, what you can’t. I’m going to give you an address. Get there, bring a camera. No live feed. No. Live. Feed,” she repeated. “Stay across the street. Do not cross to the location. Do not attempt to speak to anyone. Do not release the feed until I say. If you follow all those very specific instructions, I’ll clear you to come into Central, do a few select interviews.”
“You found them. You’re going in.”
“I’ve told you all I’m telling you at this time.” She paused a moment. “You helped find a victim, and she’s safe. You get this.” She read off the address.
She clicked off. And when she hit the stairs to the garage level, nodded to herself. “Better than candles.”
“That’s good, that’s good and smart.”
“Feels like it. Let’s be good and smart now.” She put on her vest as they crossed to the assembled team. “Check comms,” she ordered as she fit in her earbud. “Get it done. Take it down, bring them home.”
She climbed in the back of her assigned van, counted heads as her team followed. Peabody, Roarke, McNab, Feeney, and Jamie; Officers Shelby, Dubock, and Marshall. “We’re set. Move out.”
Detectives Carmichael and Santiago’s team to the crematorium, uniform teams dispatched to suspects’ residences. Jenkinson and Reineke with theirs on the tunnels.
She checked in with Whitney for status on outside locations, then with the commands on water and air support.
“Approaching our mark,” Feeney told her.
Just a normal day for most, Eve thought. Just a muggy morning in the city, traffic snarling, air blimps blasting, people on their way to work, grabbing cart coffee, tourists gawking and hitting up the early sidewalk vendors for caps, T-shirts, knockoff designer bags.
Busy, noisy, impatient, and full of life.
And inside one building, one she saw on-screen now, that life filled with fear and misery, with greed and viciousness.
Time to end it.
“Numbers,” Eve said.
“Scanning now.” As he’d been briefed, Jamie started with the tunnels. “I’ve got two, in a vehicle due to speed of movement and position.”
When he gave her direction and location, she relayed to the street patrol. “Pick them up, shut down any communications, search and confiscate vehicle.”
“Basement level,” Jamie continued. “Four, three standing, the fourth supine. Elevated. That’s the infirmary. One leaving area, moving up. Elevator, bypassing main level. Five heat sources front main level, three standing, two sitting. Rear main level, we got four more.”
With the blueprints layered over the screen, Eve identified the delivery front, the back offices, the shipping dock, and as Jamie scanned up, the kitchen area, the dining area for that level, what would be bedrooms, the studio.
She ran the count in her head as he worked.
“That’s a hundred and seventy-two heat sources. No way to confirm how many are prisoners. Callendar, you copy?”
“Affirmative,” she said in Eve’s ear.
“Take a walk.”
“Copy that.”
On the next screen, Eve watched Callendar stroll along the sidewalk with a shipping box under her arm. When she went inside the building, Eve monitored her heat source on the first screen.
Moving to the counter. Just sending off a package, one they’d scan—SOP.
Seconds later, she heard Callendar’s voice—not just through her earbud, but through the monitor’s audio.
“Gonna be a hot one.”
“Loud and clear,” Eve said as the clerk chatted back. “Counter bug activated.”
“Check it,” Callendar said cheerfully as her heat source moved back to the main door. “Cha.”
“Activate package ears.”
“Activating now. Two females at the counter, one male moving in and out the back.”
“Roarke.”
“Yes, it’s coming right along here. I should have the comms down in about two minutes, the front and rear cams as well. And McNab’s working on a bit of a bonus.”
“What bonus?”
“Getting a hack into their interior cam system—just the cams,” McNab told her. “I should be able to bounce it back to us. Can’t finish until the comms are shut or it’s gonna show. I’m pretty damn close.”
“Can you hit simultaneous?”
“Should.”
“Feeney, if this works, I want you and Jamie to feed us as much as you can—kids priority. Numbers, locations, proximity to suspects.”
“We’re on it.”
“I’m in,” Roarke told her. “When you’re ready.”
“Central Command and all teams, comms going down in five…” She pointed at Roarke, “four, three, two, one.”
“Done.”
“Hack complete. Take it, Cap.”
“We’re go, all teams, all locations. We’re go.”